壓抑快樂不過是將欲念積存在你的內心深處，誰知道今天看似遺忘的東西，不會等待在明天出現？就連你的身體也懂得它天生的權力與理所當然的需要，不會受到瞞騙。你的身體是你靈魂的豎琴，要用它奏出美妙的音樂，或是雜亂的噪音，全由你決定……
接著，有個每年進城一次的隱士走上前說，和我們講一講「快樂」吧。他回答道：
快樂是一首自由之歌，但它不是自由；它是你欲望綻放的花朵，但不是欲望結出的果實；它是深谷對高山的呼喊，但它既非深谷也不是高山；它是展開雙翼的籠中鳥，但不是被局限的空間。
是啊，沒錯，快樂是一首自由之歌，我樂於讓你全心全意去唱這首歌，但我不許你在歌唱中迷失自己。
你們當中有些年輕人始終在尋求快樂，彷彿那是一切，因而受到批評和指責。我不會批評他們，也不會指責他們，我要讓他們去追尋，因為他們必將找到快樂，而且不只是快樂。
快樂有七個姊妹，其中最平庸的也比快樂還要美麗。你是否聽過有人想挖出地下的樹根，卻發現了寶藏？
你們當中有些老人家回憶快樂時心懷悔恨，好像那是酒醉時犯下的過錯，但悔恨只是蒙蔽心靈的陰影，而不是責罰。他們應該以感恩之情回憶快樂，就像憶起夏季的豐收。不過，倘若悔恨能安慰他們，那就讓他們得到安慰吧。
你們當中還有一些人，既不是尋求快樂的年輕人，也不是追憶快樂的老人家；他們因為害怕尋求與回憶，乾脆逃避所有的快樂，唯恐忽視或冒犯了性靈。但即使是這樣，他們的逃避之中仍然有快樂。
他們也發現了寶藏，雖然他們挖掘樹根的手在顫抖。但是，告訴我，有誰能夠冒犯性靈？夜鷹能否冒犯夜晚的靜謐？螢火蟲能否冒犯星星？你的火焰或煙霧豈會成為風的負擔？你以為性靈是一池靜水，一根長竿就能攪亂它？
壓抑快樂不過是將欲念積存在你的內心深處，誰知道今天看似遺忘的東西，不會等待在明天出現？就連你的身體也懂得它天生的權力與理所當然的需要，不會受到瞞騙。你的身體是你靈魂的豎琴，要用它奏出美妙的音樂，或是雜亂的噪音，全由你決定。
此刻，你在心中自問：「我們如何分辨好的快樂和不好的快樂呢？」
走一趟你的田地和花園，你就會知道，採集花蜜是蜜蜂的快樂，但花朵分泌花蜜給蜜蜂採集，也是花朵的快樂；因為對蜜蜂來說，花朵是生命的泉源，而對花朵來說，蜜蜂是愛的使者。
對蜜蜂和花朵而言，奉獻快樂與接受快樂都是一種需要，也是極樂。
歐法里斯的人們啊，要像花朵和蜜蜂一樣，沉醉在你們的快樂中。
Then a hermit, who visited the city once a year, came forth
and said, “Speak to us of Pleasure.”
And he answered, saying:
Pleasure is a freedom-song,
But it is not freedom.
It is the blossoming of your desires,
But it is not their fruit.
It is a depth calling unto a height,
But it is not the deep nor the high.
It is the caged taking wing,
But it is not space encompassed.
Aye, in very truth,
pleasure is a freedom-song.
And I fain would have you sing it with fullness of heart;
yet I would not have you lose your hearts in the singing.
Some of your youth seek pleasure as if it were all,
and they are judged and rebuked.
I would not judge nor rebuke them.
I would have them seek.
For they shall find pleasure,
but not her alone;
Seven are her sisters,
and the least of them is more beautiful than pleasure.
Have you not heard of the man who was digging in the earth for
roots and found a treasure?
And some of your elders remember pleasures with regret like wrongs
committed in drunkenness.
But regret is the beclouding of the mind and not its chastisement.
They should remember their pleasures with gratitude,
as they would the harvest of a summer.
Yet if it comforts them to regret, let them be comforted
And there are among you those who are neither young to seek nor
old to remember;
And in their fear of seeking and remembering they shun all pleasures,
lest they neglect the spirit or offend against it.
But even in their foregoing is their pleasure.
And thus they too find a treasure though they dig for roots with
quivering hands.
But tell me, who is he that can offend the spirit?
Shall the nightingale offend the stillness of the night,
or the firefly the stars?
And shall your flame or your smoke burden the wind?
Think you the spirit is a still pool which you can trouble with a staff ?
Oftentimes in denying yourself pleasure you do but store the desire
in the recesses of your being.
Who knows but that which seems omitted today, waits for tomorrow?
Even your body knows its heritage and its rightful need
and will not be deceived.
And your body is the harp of your soul,
And it is yours to bring forth sweet music from it or confused sounds.
And now you ask in your heart, “How shall we distinguish that
which is good in pleasure from that which is not good?”
Go to your fields and your gardens, and you shall learn that it is the
pleasure of the bee to gather honey of the flower,
But it is also the pleasure of the flower to yield its honey to the bee.
For to the bee a flower is a fountain of life,
And to the flower a bee is a messenger of love,
And to both, bee and flower,
the giving and the receiving of pleasure is a need and an ecstasy
People of Orphalese,
be in your pleasures like the flowers and the bees
作者介紹│紀伯倫（Kahlil Gibran，1883-1931）
生於黎巴嫩北部臨海的貝什里村（Bsharri）。此地孕育了基督與腓尼基文明，也是蘇美人愛與豐饒女神伊絲塔所居之地。豐富的宗教氣息與東方文化，使得他的詩作能在西方浪漫主義的精神上，更添東方神秘主義的靈性色彩。
紀伯倫一生顛沛流離、年少痛失至親，1908年又因發表小說《叛逆的靈魂》觸怒黎巴嫩當局，遭到放逐。即使飽嚐磨難，他仍筆耕不輟，1923年出版的《先知》即是他十多部作品中集大成之作，甫出版即轟動世界文壇。他將40多年來的人生閱歷，精煉成《先知》中26篇綻放著永恆智慧光芒的散文詩，以溫潤、豁達的話語撫慰因愛情、工作、生死而感到焦躁不安的人們。
本文經授權轉載自野人出版《先知：東方詩哲紀伯倫唯美散文詩集》（原標題：快樂）
責任編輯/謝孟穎
